1941 Willys Coupe – The Summer Of ’41

Street Rods Only Makes A Kit Rod That Brings The Past To The Present

I always find it interesting to see just what vehicle a man who builds cars for others selects for himself when that time comes. I mean, these guys see so many cars and so many different ideas that you would think it would be virtually impossible for them to make the decision. However, when it came time for Mike Walker, owner of Street Rods Only in Macon, Illinois, to build his personal car, there was really never any choice.

Walker has always been a serious fan of Willys vehicles in general and the ’41 Willys coupe in particular. His reason is the same as that of many other rodders. The Willys coupe is the hot rod equivalent of the ultimate performance machine. It is his Summer of ’41 car for all seasons.

These cars ruled the dragstrips of the ’50s and ’60s. Sure, they were modified, but the body was all Willys. They moved from OHV Olds, Cadillac, and Buick V-8s to the all-powerful, blown 392 Hemi in an ever-ascending spiral of performance hysteria.

Therefore, it’s only natural that a guy who builds hot rods would gravitate to the undisputed king of the performance image hot rods when it came time to build his car. It’s also only natural that he would fill the engine compartment with one of Mother Mopar’s fabled Hemi engines.

For his personal driving pleasure, Walker mixed up a full course of automotive delights.For underpinnings strong enough to stand up to the rigors of a full-on Hemi making a straight-line charge, Walker started with a Dennis Taylor Reproductions 2×4-inch steel-tube chassis. Then he added a Heidt’s independent front suspension, TRW rack-and-pinion steering, a couple of Air Ride Technologies airbags, and a pair of disc brakes.

At the rear, he opted for a fabricated sheetmetal 9-inch Ford-style rearend housing. He filled it with some trick pieces from Moser, the necessary attachment points to make the four-link hooking this guy to the ground, and a pair of disc brakes to make it all stop right now-if he really wanted it to.

Of course, the finishing touch to the rolling chassis is the addition of the proper rolling stock. For this, Walker selected Boyd Coddington five-spoke wheels (16×7 front and 17×12 rear), wrapped in BFGoodrich rubber.

To create the forward motion necessary to test the four-wheel disc brakes, massive rubber, and race-style suspension, Walker opted for an historically inspired engine that has the pure power and physical presence to properly complement that behemoth-of-the-boulevard, take-no-prisoners image that has for years been associated with the ’41 Willys.

Yeah, that’s right, he stuck a full-grown, injected Hemi in the Willys engine bay. Of course the injection is not from Hilborn, and the Hemi is a bit larger and stronger than anything that came out of the ’50s. This thing is one of those monster 426 Hemis that ripped and roared its way into every drag race record book ever written since its introduction in 1964. In this case the injection is of the electronically controlled port style and is a creation of Street & Performance in Mena, Arkansas. The engine is basically stock, with the addition of a modified GM electronic ignition, a pair of Sanderson Street Rod headers, the above-mentioned fuel injection, and a GM engine controller.

The result is an engine that makes plenty of serious horsepower, starts easy, has crisp throttle response, runs clean, gets relatively good fuel mileage, and is a pure pleasure to drive. A modified manual shift 727 TorqueFlite passes the power to the rear of the car where it spins the massive BFGoodrich rubber with frightening ease.

With the chassis and drivetrain united and awaiting the arrival of a worthy body, Walker selected a basic Dennis Taylor Reproductions fiberglass body then added a few of his own special touches. A custom grille by Jim Rench fills the stock grille cavity, the fenders are slightly re-contoured, the running boards are redesigned, and a pair of flush taillights and third brake light were laid into the rear of the car.

Street Rods Only handled all the modifications, and when all the reshaping, sanding, and straightening were completed, they applied a slick coat of silver and black Dupont paint over the entire surface. Then, J.R. Hoskins separated the colors with a line of flip-flop blue striping.

When the completed body was bolted in place, it was time to finish out the interior. First, a dashboard was fabricated in a modified drag car fashion using lots of polished aluminum and enough leather upholstery to civilize it. Then, it was filled with Auto Meter instruments, also in a modified race car fashion. A sound system and Southern Air climate controls were added to make those long cruises a truly pleasant happening for all the senses.

After all the amenities were installed, it was off to Looks Upholstery in Pekin, Illinois, where generous amounts of black leather and black wool carpet were used to cover the interior surfaces.

The finished product is a very civilized approach to what appears to be one of those menacing Willys drag machines. Like we said in the beginning, it’s really interesting to see just what the guy who builds cars for others builds for himself. For Walker it was bringing his Summer of ’41 to the winter of ’04 for us to enjoy.